BPI Trade aims to double subscriber base

BPI Trade, the online investment channel of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), aims to double its subscriber base as well as the value of investment transactions this year.

From just a little over P1 billion last year, BPI Trade is looking at investment transactions of over P2 billion this year, and a subscriber base of 2,800 by yearend, from 1,627 last year.

"Of the P1-billion transactions we handled last year, P750 million was in the equities market and the rest in government securities," Jose A. Bengzon III, vice president of BPI Securities Corp. said.

BPI Securities, the "big sister" of BPI Trade, logged transactions worth P6.8 billion last year, a figure that is deemed respectable considering poor trading conditions in the Philippine Stock Exchange last year.

Bengzon explained that their optimism this year stems from the expansion of products that can be transacted through BPI Trade.

Last year, the online facility was the vehicle for listed stock transactions and government securities including Treasury bills, fixed rate Treasury notes, and retail Treasury bills.

Starting this week, BPI Trade introduced online trading of common trust funds (CTFs) and mutual funds handled by BPI and its branches, or BPI Asset Management and its authorized co-distributors.

CTF products available online are BPI short-term income fund and BPI premium fund. The mutual fund available online is the Ayala Life Fixed Income Fund (ALFM).

CTFs handled by BPI amounted to roughly P100 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2002 while the ALFM managed assets worth P13.2 billion last year.

The assets managed by ALFM accounted for 51 percent of the mutual fund industry while its CTFs cornered a market share of nearly 25 percent of the industry.